Review Roundup For Rainbow Six Extraction

If you're looking for a new game to play with friends--and one that involves fighting against parasitic alien lifeforms bent on world domination--Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Extraction might suit your very specific tastes. A spin-off of Rainbow Six Siege, Extraction tasks three-player squads with the investigation of the extraterrestrial Archaen threat. Teamwork and communication are vital to the success of a mission, while gunplay and other skills also factor into the equation.

Ahead of its release on January 20, reviews have gone live for Rainbow Six Extraction, with the majority of outlets calling it a solid start for Ubisoft's latest live-service experience, but one that will need some fine-tuning in the weeks and months to come. If your Xbox Game Pass subscription is up to date, you'll also be able to play the game through the Microsoft service.

GameSpot's Rainbow Six Extraction review praised just how well the game's teamwork functions when each member of a party operates in synch, but the game's story and some progression systems were weaker aspects of its design.

"You're fighting aliens, but a successful mission is still entirely dependent on teamwork, communication, and your ability to adapt to difficult situations," Jordan Ramee wrote. "It's a compelling gameplay loop, one made far more fun if you have two friends to jump into the fray with you."

• Game: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia
• Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
• Release Date: January 20
• Price: Starting at $40

For more, head to GameSpot sister site Metacritic to see a wider look at Rainbows Six Extraction's critical consensus. For guides, we have essential Rainbow Six Extraction tips and a feature on how long it'll take to complete the game.

GameSpot -- 70/100

"Though the story is weak and the design of the game favors certain characters, Extraction is a good Rainbow Six game that rewards you and your team's ability to adapt to deliver a compelling gameplay loop." -- Jordan Ramee [Full review]

WCCFTech -- 79/100

"By focusing on smaller-scale skirmishes, Ubisoft actively rewards and promotes players to use their operator abilities to mitigate an encounter rather than always going in guns blazing. While that sentiment doesn’t carry over into the currently poorly tuned endgame content, the twenty to thirty hours of regular matches that players can enjoy with a group of friends can be quite rewarding." -- Kai Powell [Full review]

IGN -- 70/100

"Rainbow Six Extraction brings some great new ideas to the venerable first-person shooter as it morphs to a sci-fi co-op game, but it doesn't distinguish itself quite enough to stand out on its own merits." -- Luke Winkie [Full review]

GamesRadar -- 70/100

"If Rainbow Six Extraction is to achieve long-term success and build a healthy community, then it must play to its strengths, it must be its own thing, and it must escape the long shadow cast by the very source material responsible for its existence." -- Joe Donelley [Full review]

Destructoid -- 70/100

"Playing it, I can see frequent flashes of many highs of the series. Gunplay is on-point for most of the weaponry, and there’s a good chunk of loadouts and different approaches to go with, to encourage you to keep playing. The issue lies with the frustration of the gated unlocks and by proxy the MIA system, which doesn’t feel so much like a feature as it is a hindrance, to prevent you from ranking up quicker." -- Chris Carter [Full review]

VGC -- 60/100

"We can’t recommend Rainbow Six Extraction if you’re planning on playing alone, especially on PlayStation platforms where you’re expected to pay for the privilege, but if your regular gaming group is bored of the game you play every night, and they all have Game Pass, Extraction will provide laughs." -- Jordan Middler [Full review]

PC Gamer -- 73/100

"There are a lot of fun ways to shoot AI baddies with buds in 2022, so it's impressive that Extraction is distinct from every game I just listed. It's trying to be something slower and tactical, and it even succeeds most of the time. But punishing is not what my friends and I are usually looking for in a co-op shooter (we get enough of that from competitive rounds of Hunt: Showdown), so I doubt Extraction will ever be the game we fire up on a Friday night. -- Morgan Park [Full review]